Most people will be surprised that it’s time for spring planting, but in Victoria, Texas, it’s that time! According to past frosts, there’s only a 10 percent chance of a freeze in March. I believe we experienced our last freeze yesterday, Feb. 26. So, let’s get planting our veggies and flowers. Just keep an eye on the forecast for unexpected cold blasts, so you can protect tender shoots.
For special protection, here’s a Planting Time Prayer you might want to say.
A Prayer in Planting Time
Dear Lord, You are wonderful in everything you do. In marvelous ways You take the full, rich life of the plant and carefully fold it into tiny seeds. You form the seeds according to many different shapes and sizes and colors, so that man can know what kind of growth will come of them. When they are placed the earth they may look dry and dead, but when they are watered by the life-giving rain and nourished by the warm sun, they lose all their lifeless look and grow in an almost miraculous manner. By the power You gave them, they take the dead minerals of the earth and build up the nourishing, tasty foods that men need to sustain life.
This week, dear Lord, we will plant these seeds of (wheat, corn, or whatever it may be) that You have given us. Bless them, and watch over them, and bring them to the full growth and rich harvest that You wish to bless us with.
But, should You not allow them to come to full harvest, we accept Your will humbly. We trust that You will nevertheless watch over us and make the seeds of grace that You have given us grow to flower and fruit in the full Christian life that You intend for us here and hereafter. Amen.
A Prayer in Planting Time from Catholic Rural Life (www.catholicrurallife.com) was printed in the February 2020 issue of The Catholic Lighthouse, the newspaper of the Diocese of Victoria in Texas (https://victoriadiocese.org/the-catholic-lighthouse).
